Hot on the heels of Hisashi Inoue's new play "Hakone Gora Hotel," which opened at the New National Theatre in Tokyo, "Kokugo Gannen (The First Year of the Japanese Language)," a vintage classic by the same playwright that premiered on the other side of Shinjuku at the Kinokuniya Hall in 1986, has now opened to packed houses there again.
What links both works is Inoue's desire to examine Japanese identity: In "Hakone Gora Hotel" it is about coming to terms with World War II; in "Kokugo Gannen" the issue of the sacrifice of regional cultures that went along with the forging of a national language in the interests of unification after the emperor system was restored in 1868.
The hero here is Seinosuke Nango (Bsaku Sato), an Education Ministry official and Japanese language expert. As the play begins, his family and servants are preparing for a party at their home to celebrate the delivery of his new book of Western songs with his own Japanese lyrics for elementary school children.